Money quote:
...on average, our undergraduates don't come in knowing how to write a grammatically correct sentence, let alone a well-reasoned essay...and lots of them write sentences in which the verbs don't agree with the subjects in number.I am nowhere near decently educated so I am no expert on the matter of the state of education, but it is plainly obvious that education in 2007 is piss-poor when compared to, say, 1987. (It doesn't help when the dictionary folks add things like "bootylicous" to the American language, but that's a post for another day.)
I once reviewed a draft essay with an extremely bright UCLA biology major. To point out an agreement error, one of many in that stack of papers, I underlined a sentence and said, "What's the subject of this sentence?" She responded by telling me what the sentence was about. When I said that what I wanted was the grammatical subject, it took her three guesses to find it. It took her three more guesses to find the verb. No, I'm not making this up.
How do we fix it? Again, Mark Kleiman:
When grade-school teachers have incomes high enough to be able to afford elite colleges for their children, and the professional prestige we now accord to doctors, we'll be on our way.Of course, with the income and prestige will have to come accountability. Perhaps teachers should be required to have masters degrees. OR...make it worthwhile for professionals in other fields to come in and teach.
Either way, I agree teachers should be paid their worth. But with that higher paycheck needs to come competence. (Along with a longer school day and a year-round school calendar.
One thing is for certain: If we don't fix the problem quickly, the next generations are going to find themselves falling behind China, India, and the rest of the world at a fast clip.
And then what? I don't see America as the world's sole superpower with an under-educated work force. Just look at the decline our prestige has taken under the leadership of a "C" student.
